Small Groups Updated

I received a great comment from my earlier post which led to the revision (above) of what the objectives should be for the small groups:

1. Make the variation approximately the same for all groups. If you are familiar with analysis of variance, this is one of the assumptions that must pass.

2. Minimize the variation within each group. Ideally, we want each group to have the same target, each group to be on target, and for each member of the group to be as close to the target as possible.

Small Groups

I love it when the world presents examples (to me) of the tools I teach and coach. When I see a concept alive in a non 9-5 environment, it confirms to me why I do what I do.

For example:

The tool: Variation exists everywhere. If you want your business to improve and your customers increasingly satisfied, at some point, you will need to implement a variation reduction process. There are many in the world today including Kaizen and Six Sigma.

The non 9-5 environment: In joining a church, it is probably safe to assume that each member has the same "target". The top graph above depicts the whole congregation as sharing the same target (red line) but differing in commitment to the target.(variation)

If the church wants to improve, it must reduce this variation around the "target". In that spirit, many churches (including mine of 3000 members) are implementing small groups. The concept is that the whole is only as good as the sum of the parts. The groups are natural divisions of the congregation: men, women, teens, senior citizens, etc. The second graph depicts breaking the entire variation down by the groups. Some groups are more homogeneous than others or some groups have less variation than others.

By meeting regularly, the hope is that, over time, the groups become similarly homogeneous (depicted in the third graph) with approximately the same variation in commitment to the "target". When this occurs, the church as a whole improves.

Changes in Process and Life

You keep a mean and range control chart (see above) to monitor a key process. Every two hours, you collect three consecutive pieces of the output, measure a dimension or characteristic on each piece, record the measurements on the chart, calculate the mean and range, and plot the mean and range. The last twenty five subgroups' means ran higher than the historical level but the range stayed consistent. Meaning, the process variation did not change but the location of the process moved to a different place. What do you do? Well, there are two choices:

If the cause of the relocation is due to a special cause or abnormal circumstance, find the special cause, eliminate it, and the process will return to "normal". But what if there is no special cause? Do you adjust the process to bring it back to normal or do you accept the process' new location and adjust accordingly?

This happens to us in life-We float along having good and bad days. We accept where we are and don't do much to disrupt the daily routine. But what if things change and we find ourselves in a different place or different cicumstance? Well, again, we have two choices:

We fight real hard to get back to where we were. This new place is not comfortable and disrupts our equilibrium. We chalk this up to a special cause and wait to resume life as we knew it. Or, we make the best of this new circumstance. We are here for a reason. Instead of working to get past the special cause, we stop and think why this happened and pay attention to what it might mean in our lives. This might be a new opportunity for us and our family and we might just have to "Do" and trust that the outcome will be positive.

The journey we travel in life is not always a straight line. There will be many fluctuations and side paths along the way to teach us lessons and for us to practice our faith.